Paying To much Child support

February 22, 2008


To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Luis Carrion and I am currently working in Kuwait/Iraq supporting the troops. Here is my situation:

I divorced my first wife in (Year) thru Texas court system. My ex-wife and I had an agreement on the divorce decree that I would pay Four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) child support per month in the state of Texas. I was also paying her more money on the side but the court said it was a give even though I had receipts.However, after the divorce was final, she retaliated and said that the divorce was illegal and tried to get it annulled. But, the Court said it was legal and would not consider the annulment.

We went back to Court this time in Puerto Rico which upheld the divorce, but raised my child support payments to Two Thousand Six Hundred and Fifty-one Dollars ($2,651.00) a month and calculated that I owed Seventy-three Thousand Dollars ($73,000.00) in back support payments. The calculation was based on my current earnings (included in this was Uplift – 30%) and was not calculated using stateside pay.

I explained that I felt that calculation should be based on stateside pay only because at any time I could be recalled to work in the United States. The method used to calculate the back child support was totally unfair to me, especially since I was paying my ex-wife child support, but not through the Court. I presented all my documentation but to no avail.

Recently, I went to the Kuwait Embassy to have more pages added to my Passport and they confiscated the passport. They told me that I needed to contact the Court in Puerto Rico which I did (787-767-1500 X 2723/2736), and they told me that they would release my passport if I paid half Thirty-six Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($36,500). I stated that an installment agreement was in place for me to pay on the pass due child support payments and explained that I did not have the amount requested and that I would lose my job, if I could not get my passport. Kuwait requires expats to have a passport to remain in the country. However they did not want to work with me and simply refused to honor the Court stipulated agreement.

Currently, I have remarried and I am supporting three (3) children. Two (2) of the children are from a previous marriage and the Puerto Rican authorities stated that since I did not adopt the two (2) children they would not take that into consideration.

Finally, without my passport I will lose my job and no one will be able to get any support until I find another job. I will not be able to leave Kuwait to even look for a job because I do not have a passport to leave the country. As you can see I am in a tenuous situation and I really do need some help.

Any help you can provide to help me through this dilemma will be greatly appreciate.

Sincerely,